Press Releases

For the First Time in the Israeli Banking System: "Leumi Hackathon" - Inventing the Bank of Tomorrow in 36 Hours

Leumi and the software giant Salesforce are holding a two-day competition during which participants will develop banking apps while having access to the Bank's development environment and application programming interfaces (API's)

A prize of NIS 100,000 will be awarded to the winning app

Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, Leumi CEO: "The Hackathon will allow developers to create ground-breaking technologies and is part of the innovation trend that Leumi is leading in order to improve customer experience"

Bank Leumi and its subsidiary, 'LeumiTech', in collaboration with the global software company 'Salesforce' and 'BeMyApp', will hold a Hackathon for the first time in the Israeli banking system. Dozens of developers, programmers, entrepreneurs and designers from across the country will gather for 36 hours, during which they will generate ideas and develop innovative and cutting-edge mobile banking apps. Participants will enjoy access to Leumi's development environment and application programming interfaces (API's), which will be provided through the 'Salesforce' platform.

The apps will focus on six main topics that are challenging the banking world today: improving user experience, online payments, social media, promoting small and medium businesses, gamification, and the 'Internet of Things' (IoT). At the end of the competition the winning app will be declared and the development team will win a NIS 100,000 prize. The competition will be held on October 22-23 in the Exhibition Grounds, Tel Aviv (Ganei Hata'arucha).

How does it work?

Between 100-150 participants may register for the competition: software developers, computer programmers, graphic and interface designers, entrepreneurs - anyone who has an idea for an innovative banking app. In the morning of the competition participants will gather for a kick-off event, during which each participant - or team - will have one minute to pitch their app idea to the other participants and a panel of judges. The participants will then be divided into small teams and begin a 36 hour marathon, during which they will try to develop the ideas into innovative and easy-to-use mobile banking apps.

To this end, Bank Leumi and Salesforce will provide the developers direct (remote) access to their development environment and API's, so that they have all the tools needed to make a significant leap in a short period of time. Most common coding languages can be used in the development process. During the marathon, Leumi's technological and business development experts will serve as mentors of the teams.

At the end of the marathon each team will have 5 minutes to pitch their finalized product to a professional panel of judges, which will consist of Leumi's senior management, prominent investors in the field of Fintech and Salesforce reps.

A prize of NIS 100,000 will be awarded to the winning app. Furthermore, Leumi will assist the winning team in promoting their product with leading financial institutions in Israel and abroad. The second best app will be awarded NIS 30,000 + 3 MacBook Air laptops, and the third place app will be awarded NIS 15,000 + 3 Nexus 7 tablets.

Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, Leumi CEO: "The Leumi Hackathon, the first of its kind in the Israeli banking system, is an outcome of the strategic cooperation between Leumi and the software giant Salesforce. The Hackathon will allow developers to create ground-breaking technologies in the banking field that are tailored to customer needs. We are proud to be the first Israeli bank to organize a Hackathon and we will continue to conduct proactive and innovative banking for our customers".

Danny Yerushalmi, Head of Leumi Technologies: "Today, all the development of mobile apps is performed within the Bank, while we try to evaluate which topics are of interest to our customers. Nevertheless, we are constantly seeking new technological developments that will enhance the customer experience. The Hackathon is part of a global trend of integrating external parties in the technological development process. In this way we can expose customers to a broader range of services, in a shorter timeframe and with lower development costs".

About Salesforce
A global cloud computing company that provides software solutions for customer relationship management (CRM) and sales, digital marketing and business application development platforms for organizations.
The company, founded in 1999 in San Francisco, California, has a market cap of over $ 30 billion. In the last three years, Salesforce was chosen as "The Most Innovative Company in the World" by the prestigious Forbes magazine.

About BeMyApp
A company specializing in organizing unique events for developers around the world, including conferences, hackathons, competitions, and technological incubators.